Miller’s Barrio Roots

Over brie and wine at the gallery theXpo in the fashionable Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo last week, Gifford Miller raised some eyebrows with a new version of his East Side childhood.

The Speaker grew up, he casually mentioned, in “East Harlem,” according to two attendees.

One guest at the event speculates that it was “a way to connect with the young gentrifiers.”

UPDATE: Miller spokesman Reggie Johnson emails: “The Politicker’s characterization of Gifford Miller’s statements at a recent ‘theXpo’ event is inaccurate and false. Gifford didn’t contend or suggest in anyway that he had ever been a resident of East Harlem. As he has often done before, Gifford spoke of his parent’s service to the East Harlem Community Board 11 and how their long time service has given him a special connection to the community. Any contention that he said anything more would be patently false.”

The Politicker wasn’t there, but two people who were report they heard Miller say, “I grew up in East Harlem where my father was a member of the community board.”